Well, I'm back in the United States. The cold and wet of Spring in the Midwest has greeted me with open arms. For just a moment, though, I want to think back to just over a week ago when the sun was still shining and the temperature was still around 75 degrees. There are just a couple things left to wrap up about my last days in Central America.
Our bus made it back into Honduras without the issues we experienced getting into El Salvador. This was fine with me, as I'm sure that lightning doesn't strike twice when it comes to free beer. The main objective while back in Tegucigalpa was to pick up the rest of Tezra's belongings and for her to say a final goodbye to some other volunteers. It's funny how familiar Tegus had become to me. In some ways, it feels as though it was the hub from which many of my trips left from. I used my time there to get one last coffee at Cafe Americano, and knock McDonald's off the list of fast food from the States which I had yet to...enjoy?
In the name of saving time in transit, we ended up catching a bus that went directly from Tegucigalpa to San Jose. This meant a solid seventeen hours on the bus. Now, we did spring for the King Quality bus line, which gives you food, shows movies that are not pirated, and has more seat room than any vehicle I have ever seen. It's still a damn long ride though. There wasn't too much memorable that happened during it either. I managed to knock the lid of a coffee pot off the pot and splatter hot liquid down the front my pants. Luckily, I misplaced my pride a long time ago, so it didn't really bother me. Besides, there was no time to cry over spilt coffee. Our friend Kat, whom I had stayed with at the very start of my trip, was picking us up!
We spent a final few days in Costa Rica, laying low so to speak as to not spend much money. However, I have mentioned before that Kat works for a school. She was kind enough to let Tezra and I go along on a field trip into one of the low income neighborhoods that some of the students were visiting. I also got to sit in on a presentation she gave on culture shock. Both were fun experiences. Tezra left the day before I did, so I went with her to say goodbye as well as for a "practice run" of getting myself to the airport on public transit. My last night in San Jose was spent with Kat and Anthony. We went out to what you might call the bar district near the university. After eating the largest slices of pizza I have ever laid eyes or hands on, we went across the street where I had a liter of green beer, followed by a liter of purple beer. They both had had Kool-Aid powder added to them. I'd have the lime again, but probably not the grape.
That's basically all she wrote. I was up early the next morning to shower, throw the rest of my things together, and head back to Chicago. Kat saw me off, and I made it to the airport without a hitch. By seven that night, I was back in the United States. Chicago would be my home for a few days as I caught up with friends and prepared for the last bus rides to Minneapolis, and then back to Sioux Falls. As I pulled into the Sioux Falls bus station, I felt good as I grasped the end of a great nine month adventure!
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